Norway has become the first country in the world where the sale of electric cars has overtaken those powered by petrol, diesel and hybrid engines.

In an exciting moment for electric cars, the country saw 54.3% of all new cars sold having electric batteries in 2020. This is an increase from 2019’s 42.4%.

New data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) revealed that the top battery vehicle producer is Volkswagen.

The country is hoping to have 100% of new cars powered by electric batteries by 2025. Electric vehicles are exempt from taxes imposed on cars that are powered by fossil fuels.

Øyvind Thorsen, the chief executive of OFV, said: “We’re definitely on track to reach the 2025 target.”

In Europe, more than 500,000 battery-electric cars were sold in 2020.

Matthias Schmidt, a Berlin-based analyst, said: “The main driver of the market has undoubtably been manufacturers’ race to reach new average CO2 fleet emission targets, phased in this year.

“The targets have been made easier to achieve by a depressed total market, meaning fewer plug-ins have to be registered in order to meet compliance levels, and secondly by governments’ willingness to increase purchase and fiscal incentives in light of the coronavirus pandemic.”